[s-cars] SpeedVision to Return?!?!?!?!

[David Kase]

By DUTCH MANDEL 
<http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/personalia?ID=1000004&category=contact> 



By many measures it has been a good week. Why: I am still perpendicular 
to the earth and I got a call from a guy backing a new road-racing 
television network.

He wants to know if a dedicated television channel with 1000 hours of 
live or same-day road racing would be a good thing. Is there interest 
among the car-racing community for such a channel?

You should know that Jim Liberatore is the former head of Speed network. 
He was there when The Ultimate Car Guy Channel showed fans everything 
from Australian channel boat racing to rally cross and everything in 
between. The new deal, appropriately called The Racers Network, will 
have all sorts of racing … and racing that doesn’t just turn left.

Don’t get me wrong. NASCAR is good. But its presence by my standards is 
oversaturated. I have seen just about enough reality TV shows on 
fourth-tier Busch series drivers, about celebrity driver searches, about 
the Wives South of the Smith & Wesson line. I want road racing.

And rally racing. And sports car racing. And karting, vintage, 
endurance, motorcycles in all their permutations, Porsche Cup and hill 
climbs. I even want stuff that focuses on marque-specific car clubs.

In a nutshell, I want it all.

I’m not getting it now. But Liberatore wants me—and you—to be sated. 
He’s apparently got some interest from Those Who Can Make Our Dream 
happen, but still he needs help: He must have enthusiasts sound off in 
sufficient numbers to show the powers that be such a network would have 
a regular following.

If you’re like me and you want your road-racing Jones to be satisfied, 
let me suggest something. Go to our site and click on the link to our 
Fast Poll question that will be live as of Monday, Aug. 6 at noon (EDT). 
Answer it honestly. Then tell your bench racing buddies to do likewise. 
Then go to Liberatore’s site, www.theracingnetwork.com 
<http://www.theracingnetwork.com> and answer one question. And then tell 
your garage mates and car collector friends and other car-centric pals 
to do likewise.

I hope that by letting you know of this opportunity, your day—and week 
and summer racing season and television viewing time—just got a little 
bit better. Mine has.


Survey:

http://www.theracingnetwork.com/index.php?error=1